About the Farms

The following farms operate at the Just Food Farm as part of our 2017 Start-Up Farm Program. Just Food Farm became certified organic through Ecocert in October 2014 and maintains this certification on a yearly basis.

The Just Food Farm is located in the Ottawa Greenbelt, 12 km east of Parliament Hill.

Little Lot Farm

Laura Altorio, Matthew Cyr, Tara Robertson

We are a certified organic start-up farm located in Ottawa, Ontario that produces fresh veggies, herbs, and eggs using sustainable growing practices. Working with the Just Food Start-Up Farm Program, this is our first year growing on the Just Food Farm.

“Just three urban foodies who outgrew their backyard plots…”

Each of us started out with a desire to learn how to live in a more self-reliant and sustainable way, and to teach our children some essential skills that will help them to do the same. So we began with food. Our basic goal was to nourish our families with fresh, organic goodness that we grew ourselves.

As we learned how to tend our own little backyard and balcony crops, we were motivated to continue learning and to expand our role in our food community; we found ourselves (and each other) at an information session for Just Food’s Start-Up Farm Program. And the rest, as they say, is history…

As Little Lot Farm, we’re inspired to serve our community by contributing to our local food system in a sustainable and healthy way – to nourish our community with fresh, organic produce that we grow ourselves, and inspire our neighbours to explore their connection to the food they eat and the people who grow it.

New Leaf Farm

Gordon Tennant and Gregor Tennant

New Leaf Organic Farm has been an ongoing dream since 2015 when Gregor moved from Hotel and Restaurant management studies to actually working and growing food at Riverglen Biodynamic Farm and Gord started clearing land near his parent’s property to build a home using Permaculture Principles.

In 2017 Gregor and Gord will be moving to the next stage of our development growing and marketing a full variety of Organic vegetables and fruits at the Just Food Farm and on the family land near Perth. We are committed to growing healthy organic produce using the most sustainable, natural methods we can without pesticides or herbicides.

We will also be continuing to improve the family land and its soil in Perth though organic practices with the hope of introducing a range of crops from fruits and vegetables to grains and field crops for human and livestock consumption.

Where to buy

We will be selling our produce this summer at the Just Food Farm Gate on Sundays and at the Perth Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.

Chi Garden

Sun Shan and Li Bo

The Chi Garden is a market garden specialized in organically grown vegetables, Asian vegetables and herbs, wild edible greens, and fermented vegetables. We are located at 2389 Pepin Ct, Gloucester, about 12 kilometers east of Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario.

Our garden was founded by two environment professionals, Li Bo and Sun Shan, and has been growing a farm garden, both for homesteading and farmers market, since 2014. Started gardening organically in Bruce County, in the beautiful lake shore of Huron, we have relocated and will become a Certified Organic farm business from 2017 based at the JustFood farm.

At the Chi Garden, we value crop variety and farming traditions from both the global east and west. Our DIVERSITY SALAD, a variety of over 10 mixed eastern and western greens, provides a not-to-be-found-anywhere-else experience of enhanced flavor and health benefits, and surely adds to the emerging culinary culture of Canada! Edible chrysanthemum, tender bok choy, sweet pea shoots, goji leaves and Chinese kale, are but a few examples to find in your salad mix of fresh lettuce and arugula!

The Chi Garden is also cultivating WILD EDIBLE PLANTS: wild garlic, lambs quarter and wild leek, and more, and is hoping to bring them to market soon.

A little bit about the name of our family business, the Chi Garden. Chi is romanized from a traditional Chinese character 蕺 (ji4), owing to its origin from a common and much loved vegetable herb in many Asian countries: 蕺草 (jicao) in ancient Chinese, 鱼腥草 Yuxingcao or 折耳根 zhe’ergen, in today’s China, Dokudami in Japanese. It is sometimes referred to as fish mint in English, but maybe more familiar by its Latin name to horticulturists, Houttuynia cordata. In Asia, this herb has both culinary and medicinal use, and is believed to be a ‘poison blocking plant’. For us at the Chi Garden, it signifies our aspiration to bridge and to bring together traditional knowledge, remedies provided by plants, and culinary know-hows from around the world.

We are experimenting with our Half Organic Farming, Half International Exchanges and Study Tours life/work style. The Chi Garden business is also a basis to connect with our exchange visitors and like-minded people. To find out more about our stories, experiments and tours, please visit https://www.thechigarden.com.

Hedgedale Farm

Meagan McVeigh and Jeff McVeigh

Hedgedale Farm is a small scale organic vegetable farm. We concentrate on producing reliable vegetable staples that are delicious and uniquely beautiful. Farmers Meagan and Jeff McVeigh are a father daughter team. Meagan has a background in social services and food security. She is passionate about increasing accessibility to good local food. Jeff has been a realtor in the ottawa area but has always had a connection to farming. His Mother grew up on a Farm and his way of life is attributed to the hard working ethics of farm life. Hedgedale is the name of his mothers farm and is an ode to her and that life style.

Where to buy & Contact usWebsite | HedgedaleFarm.com

Earth and Heart Organics

Jean Claude Celestin

Organic Way focuses on growing organic rares crops (like jute) with potential nutritional elements. Other general crops are also harvested to accompany the rares ones. It will be a tremendous experience once you try them and learn about them. Usage of these crops should naturally bring you to the consumption of healthy foods.

Still Growing Farms

Dan Kristolaitis

Still Growing Farms, owned and operated by Dan, began in 2013 at the Just Food Farm.

Dan got his first taste of farming as a child; feeding pigs, chasing sheep and collecting eggs at Still family reunions in Manitoba. Every year he’d work the garden with his grandparents, Harvey and Elsie Still. In adulthood Dan earned a Diploma in Agriculture from Guelph University. He has farmed everywhere from apple orchards in Mendoza, Argentina to vegetable and livestock farms here in the Ottawa Valley. Most recently Dan worked for the federal corn breeding program at the Central Experimental Farm, right in the heart of the Capital. This farm pays tribute to his family roots in farming, and to the growing craving for producing healthy, local food.

Where to buy

This year we are offering a weekly CSA of delicious, nutritious certified organic produce. We are also excited to offer pasture raised chickens for the first time. Order yours today!

Cadence Ecological Farm

Brett Weddle, Noel Dhingra, and Karen Ross

Cadence Ecological Farm is a certified organic farm setting roots in the east end of Ottawa at Just Food. We – Brett, Noel and Karen– are thrilled to be growing a colourful variety of fresh veggies and herbs in our first season.

Ultimately, we aim to build healthy soil, food and communities by developing an ecological production system that benefits both our crops, and the local flora and fauna. In future seasons we hope to share what we learn through workshops and educational resources.

From May to October, we will be one of the new vendors at the Main St. Market in Ottawa’s centrally-located Old East neighbourhood. We hope to see many of you there. We are also selling custom orders, and welcome you to contact us for more information.

Busy Beaver Farm

Christopher & Kimberly Bisson

Christopher and Kim are local Blackburn-ites that are among a growing number young millennial families on the leading edge of food production. BBF strives to demonstrate how a sustainable future is one where the thoughtful use of appropriate technology and traditional practices can be combined to serve the good of people and planet.

BBF takes its name from Eastern Ontario’s unsung hero: the might beaver! These incredible animals are the planet’s original ecological farmers and builders. In fact they are the ones who created the wetlands that resulted on the rich soils of our region.

The Bisson family has farmed for 400 years throughout the St. Lawrence Valley. The farm therefore brings the family back to their agricultural heritage by returning to a livelihood surrounded by food and nature. Large stock horses and sleds have been replaced by tractors and trucks, but they carry with them a true spirit of community and joie de vivre that their family has cultivated in their production of food since before they came to New France in the 17th Century.

BBF invites you to help take direct control of your food system and eat local and organic produce. They grow a mixed variety of organic vegetables focusing on developing gourmet-quality greens.

Mediterra Market GardenMete Pamir

Mete is eager to explore the connections among global food cultures, traditional agricultural methods and urban farming practices. At the Mediterra Market Garden he tests a variety of crops and aims to build a practical knowledge base for the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable and delicious food.

Products: A wide variety of vegetables, legumes, herbs and greens with a particular focus on produce used in Mediterranean cuisine.

Where to Buy: Place an e-mail order or check out the stand at Just Food Farm Gate.

Herbivor FarmLisa Gualtieri and Justin Palmer

As a small-scale organic vegetable farm we strive to offer flavor, nutrition, diversity and sustainability. Our produce is grown with the greatest respect for natural systems without the use of chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. We enjoy offering our members the opportunity to be adventurous in their cooking and eating, and grow a diversity of tasty, healthy and unique cultivars, including many heirloom varieties. Located 10 minutes from downtown Ottawa, we are dedicated to connecting people with their local food system and are more than happy to host visitors or eager volunteers! We offer CSA boxes and sell at the Just Food farm stand in Blackburn Hamlet.

Ekoroot Farm

Melanie McLaughlin and Ianik Lacroix

My name is Melanie and I grew up on a small farm located in North Eastern Ontario and my husband, Ianik, also has farming and machinery experience in his background. We are both excited to be test croppers at the Just Food Farm this summer where we will be growing a variety of vegetables.

We care about how we grow our food and keeping our environment healthy is important in growing healthy plants, healthy people and a healthy economy. Our plan is to practice sustainable methods and to grow food without using pesticides or chemically treated products.

To us, growing food locally is an important part of history and a sustainable practice that we are excited to learn, be part of and share. All our vegetables are family grown, one root at a time.

Products: Mixed vegetables that are grown without using any chemicals, pesticides or treated seeds, while conserving water and electricity. They strive be as local as possible in their production and distribution.

Where to Buy: Just Food Farm Stand, or Email orders. Email, drop off location and order form available at www.ekorootfarm.com

Birch HillGreg Link and Sonia Link

Greg, Sonia and their lil’ sprout Ishan are first year farmers in the Farm Start-up program. They, with the help of their family, have certainly established a family grown operation that strives to provide fresh, organic produce at market and through CSA. With a number of farming apprenticeships behind them, they are ready to go out on their own.

Barefoot GardensRandi Townsend & Sarah Lawrance

With backgrounds in grassroots activism and collective organizing, as well as farming and gardening, we are committed to exposing the structural roots of food injustice. Through our farming practices and community-building initiatives, we hope to highlight and contribute to critical analyses of the social relations of food and farming.

We believe food is a human right and should be safe and accessible to all. Accordingly, we sell our produce and seedlings based on a sliding price scale in select locations, and we gladly provide growing advice to help our communities build their own food security.

C & L GardensLisa Holland & Caroline Quintal

With agriculture degrees in their back pockets and a great passion for growing food, Caroline and Lisa are working together this summer to produce delicious fruits and vegetables. But it wasn’t farming that brought these two ‘Aggies’ together; it was actually their office jobs that allowed them to discover they both had dreams of being farmers! So, on a quarter acre of land found at the Just Food Farm, they will be producing food in a sustainable way. In doing so, they will be working with the land to produce healthy food that even they can’t wait to harvest, taste and share!

Come discover a variety of vegetables, a few fruits and mostly the love and appreciation for vegetable agriculture!

Goddard Id FarmJeremy Foss

Jeremy Foss is a fourth year farmer and proprietor of Goddard Id Farm. The farm is located inside the Greenbelt and will be providing weekly CSA boxes to customers in Ottawa. He will be growing over 100 different varieties of vegetables this year.

Jeremy has been involved with local food and other sustainability initiatives for many years. He decided to begin farming while looking for practical applications for an environmental planning diploma. The philosophical idea behind Goddard Id Farm is that providing high quality, local produce is an excellent way of reconnecting people with their food and the land on which it is grown. This re-connection between people, food and land will then serve as a launch pad to stimulate broader interest in other aspects of sustainable development.

Tiller’s HavenSudhir Kodati and Mete Pamir

With backgrounds in development economics and social justice activism, we aim to facilitate cross-cultural learning in regards to food production and build connections between historical food cultures and agricultural methods across borders.

Tillers’ Haven is a meeting place for knowledge-sharing networks between diverse Ottawa communities and global food traditions with a vision to engage its customers in the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable and delicious food.

Products: Sudhir and Mete specialize in non-certified organic production of a wide variety of vegetables, legumes, herbs and greens with particular focus on Mediterranean and South Asian cuisines.

Where To Buy: Sign up for their weekly CSA, place an e-mail order or check out their produce at the Just Food Farm Gate Stand.

Start-up Farm Program

Just Food established the Start-Up Farm Program to support new farmers in the Ottawa region. By offering access to land, shared infrastructure/equipment, and training, the program aims to enable more people in this region to start their own successful farm business.